Spotlight on Success in 2017

It’s been quite a year. It had its up, its downs and its downright questionable moments. But one thing’s for sure: A lot has happened. That’s certainly the case at Granicus. Following the merger of Granicus and GovDelivery last year, we rebranded under a new, unified name. We’ve grown by helping more government agencies finds solutions to serve citizens, as well as through our acquisition of Novusolutions. And we’ve created an abundance of great content.

If you get Granicus’ emails, you might have already seen our Top 2017 Resources for Government, which shared some of our most popular content from among the 70 blog posts, 10 guides, 18 webinars and 20 success stories we created this year. As the year comes to close and we usher in 2018, we wanted to turn the spotlight on the real MVPs: our government agency clients.

Public sector employees often do thankless work each and every day to serve citizens. We wanted to share some of that work—and how Granicus has helped them do it better.

Communicating to Save Lives

Leon County, home to Florida’s capital, Tallahassee, was hit by a hurricane for the first time in 30 years in 2016. The county knew it was only a matter of time before another storm hit, so they decided to build off what they learned with a new emergency communication plan. When Hurricane Irma hit this fall, the plan kicked into gear. Central to that was a daily email brief sent out through the GovDelivery Communications Cloud that provided the most-recent information and resources for those affected by the storm. Learn more about the impact.

Getting Better Input to Shape Public Policy

The University of Michigan’s Department of Family Medicine is known to provide influential, research-based findings that shape lawmaking around the country. But they were having trouble reaching a crucial segment of the population: those under the age of 25. Knowing that they are a savvy, mobile-first generation, the department used Granicus’ Interactive Text to reach out to over 1,000 young people to ask them about topics ranging from health care to student loan debt. Find out how that helps inform policy decisions.

Making It Easier to Fill Board and Commission Seats

The city of Duluth, Minnesota used to keep track of its citizen board and commissions manually with spreadsheets and ledgers. That meant a long paper trail, and it was a struggle for busy city clerks to ensure enough people were on each board. That a problem: An unfilled seat can hinder grassroots, citizen-based legislation from reaching the city council. By expanding its use of Granicus’ Boards & Commissions solution, Duluth now fills 98 percent of its board and commission seats before there is a vacancy—no paperwork necessary! Learn how they did it.

Expand Access and Saving Costs in the Name of Justice

The Florida court system of the early 2000s relied on paper for filing, which caused all sorts of headaches: During a suit, only one party could view a file at a time, documents could only be filed during government working hours, past filings needed to be stored in a hurricane-safe warehouse and mailing documents across the state added huge costs. The state decided to shift to Granicus’ eUniversa solution. Now litigants can submit and view documents wherever and whenever they have an internet connection, improving access to the justice system. It also provided a boon for taxpayers, as they’re saving millions on postage. Find out how much they’re saving.

Improving Transparency While Saving Time—and the Planet

North Richland Hills, Texas prides itself as a great place to live, and the city government wanted to make sure its processes matched those expectations. In previous years, city council and others meetings meant significant staff time and resources spent in a “conga line” putting together agendas. When a new city hall was constructed a few years ago, staff decided to invest in new technology to make things run more smoothly. Part of that process was switching to Granicus’ Meetings & Agendas solution. Now North Richland Hills is more transparent than ever: Agendas are served to council members on iPads, and their votes are digitally recorded and shown on large monitors. Staff time can now be redirected to other, more useful tasks than agenda prep, which often took up a full day before a meeting. And the switch is helping out Mother Earth too, with 12,000 sheets of paper saved each month. Learn how these changes make elected officials more accessible.

From saving paper to saving lives, these clients above are exemplars of the amazing work the public sector does each and every day despite tight resources and shifting political demands. Looking ahead, we at Granicus are excited to help more of these organizations reach their goals—and share their stories.

From all of us at Granicus, we wish you a Happy New Year. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2018.